What is Thanksgiving?

Sunday

Nov 23, 2008 at 12:01 AMNov 23, 2008 at 11:04 PM

From childhood we see pictures of Thanksgiving — Pilgrims dressed in black with big buckles and wide-brimmed hats sharing a bountiful feast with friendly Indians. This, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving, took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. The subtext, at least the one taught to many schoolchildren, being that the Indians shared their food and the Pilgrims shared their God. And they all lived happily ever after.

Jennifer Davis

From childhood we see pictures of Thanksgiving — Pilgrims dressed in black with big buckles and wide-brimmed hats sharing a bountiful feast with friendly Indians. This, the most familiar story of the first Thanksgiving, took place in Plymouth Colony, in present-day Massachusetts, in 1621. The subtext, at least the one taught to many schoolchildren, being that the Indians shared their food and the Pilgrims shared their God. And they all lived happily ever after.

Obviously, we know that not to be true. That day — actually it was three days of feasting and games — did happen, but the Pilgrims and Indians didn’t continue to live in harmony for long. And the first Thanksgiving didn’t continue on to become the pious and patriotic holiday it is today until more than 200 years later.

Historians argue many things when it comes to Thanksgiving. Some say the first true Thanksgiving in America took place in May 1541 when Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led 1,500 of his men in a Thanksgiving celebration in what is present-day Texas. Coronado’s expedition had traveled north from Mexico City in search of gold. The Texas Society Daughters of the American Colonists commemorated the event as the first Thanksgiving in 1959.

Others differ on what Thanksgiving means. Was it truly a religious thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims through the harsh winter? Or was it simply a harvest festival that the English typically had around that time of year?

Strangely, many historians believe we have a journalist to thank for our modern-day Thanksgiving more so than the Pilgrims.

The Library of Congress, with its timeline on Thanksgiving, credits Sarah Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady Book and Magazine, with finally convincing President Abraham Lincoln to make it a national holiday through endless promotion in her magazine and, later, with a direct letter-writing campaign. Hale, who felt the country needed a day
that would unite Americans in common purpose and values, even convinced her readers to petition to Lincoln. A copy of the New York citizens’ petition, dated Sat. 8, 1865, is available for viewing online at the Library of Congress Web site at www.memory.loc.gov.

Just after the Union troops won the battle of Gettysburg in 1863, Lincoln asked the country to repent “our national perverseness and disobedience” to God during the Civil War. He wrote to “fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation.”

So, President Lincoln set the stage for Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday, but Congress didn’t make it official until 1941.

Today, Thanksgiving seems to be more about feasting and football and gearing up for Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, than it does about thanking God for our nation’s blessings. Still, many local pastors try to keep the idealized Thanksgiving alive.

Rev. Doug Hucke of Northminster Presbyterian Church in Peoria says people can still get the true meaning of Thanksgiving and Christmas by turning to their churches. Otherwise, “Thanksgiving is sort of bypassed. It’s really a hiccup on the way to Christmas anymore. It’s about being grateful, but in our consumer-oriented culture, we’re taught to want more and more and more.”

Hucke’s congregation tries to focus on the meaning, not the hype, in part by hosting a large Thanksgiving feast for its members.

Rev. Dave Koehler, pastor of the Stark Congregational Church in Stark County, says Thanksgiving is still one of his favorite holidays of the year.

“Generally, it has not been over-commercialized like so many holidays have,” he says. “I think a lot of the spirit of why Thanksgiving was created still exists. It’s a non-religious holiday with religious overtones.”

Koehler gave his last Thanksgiving sermon this year, as he plans to retire after Christmas. Koehler, who is also a State Senator and owns Peoria Bread Co. with his wife Nora Sullivan, says he can’t keep up everything.

“In the sense the retail industry depends on the Thanksgiving to Christmas season to really make it. It has been commercialized. You see Christmas things coming out at Halloween,” said Koehler. “I’m still very pleased that Thanksgiving, for the most part, is a time of thankfulness. Even if it’s only for one day.”